Hillbilly Elegy

Until then, I’d borne my father’s first
name as my middle name, and Mom used
the adoption to erase any memory of his
existence. She kept the D to preserve
what had by then become a universal
nickname—J.D. Mom told me that I was
now named after Uncle David,
Mamaw’s older, pot-smoking brother.
This seemed a bit of a stretch even when
I was six. Any old D name would have
done, so long as it wasn’t Donald.
Our new life with Bob had a
superficial, family-sitcom feel to it.
Mom and Bob’s marriage seemed happy.
They bought a house a few blocks away
from Mamaw’s. (We were so close that
if the bathrooms were occupied or I felt